Precision electroweak tests with νˉee\bar \nu_e e scattering

Measurements of the cross section for $\bar \nu_e e^-$ elastic scattering with unprecedented precision have recently been proposed. The impact of these experiments for detecting possible deviations from the standard electroweak theory is analyzed and compared with that of several other measurements.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. To be published in Phys. Rev. D, Brief Reports. Misprints correcte

Constraining a CP-violating WWV coupling from the W^+W^- threshold cross section at LEP2

The most general form of the $WWZ$ and $WW\gamma$ interaction contains a $CP$-violating term which has the same threshold behaviour as the Standard Model \ee \to \ww cross section. We calculate the cross section as a function of the corresponding anomalous coupling, and estimate the bounds which can be obtained from a measurement of the threshold cross section at LEP2. We show how the effect of the coupling is most pronounced in the angular distributions of the final-state fermions.Comment: 7 pages, LaTeX file, 5 ps figure

The Height of a Giraffe

A minor modification of the arguments of Press and Lightman leads to an estimate of the height of the tallest running, breathing organism on a habitable planet as the Bohr radius multiplied by the three-tenths power of the ratio of the electrical to gravitational forces between two protons (rather than the one-quarter power that Press got for the largest animal that would not break in falling over, after making an assumption of unreasonable brittleness). My new estimate gives a height of about 3.6 meters rather than Press's original estimate of about 2.6 cm. It also implies that the number of atoms in the tallest runner is very roughly of the order of the nine-tenths power of the ratio of the electrical to gravitational forces between two protons, which is about 3 x 10^32.Comment: 12 pages, LaTe

New analytic running coupling in spacelike and timelike regions

The new model for the QCD analytic running coupling, proposed recently, is extended to the timelike region. This running coupling naturally arises under unification of the analytic approach to QCD and the renormalization group (RG) formalism. A new method for determining the coefficients of the "analytized" RG equation is elaborated. It enables one to take into account the higher loop contributions to the new analytic running coupling (NARC) in a consistent way. The expression for the new analytic running coupling, independent of the normalization point, is obtained by invoking the asymptotic freedom condition. It is shown that the difference between the values of the NARC in respective spacelike and timelike regions is rather valuable for intermediate energies. This is essential for the correct extracting of the running coupling from experimental data. The new analytic running coupling is applied to the description of the inclusive $\tau$ lepton decay. The consistent estimation of the parameter $\Lambda_{QCD}$ is obtained here.Comment: REVTeX 3.1, 12 pages with 3 EPS figures; enlarged version is published in Phys. Rev.

Radiative Corrections to Fixed Target Moller Scattering Including Hard Bremsstrahlung Effects

We present a calculation of the complete $O(\alpha)$ electroweak radiative corrections to the Moller scattering process e^-e^- -> e^-e^-, including hard bremsstrahlung contributions. We study the effects of these corrections on both the total cross section and polarization asymmetry measured in low energy fixed target experiments. Numerical results are presented for the experimental cuts relevant for E-158, a fixed target e^-e^- experiment being performed at SLAC; the effect of hard bremsstrahlung is to shift the measured polarization asymmetry by approximately +4%. We briefly discuss the remaining theoretical uncertainty in the prediction for the low energy Moller scattering polarization asymmetry.Comment: 22 pgs; minor clarifications added and typos fixe

Flavour Mixing, Gauge Invariance and Wave-function Renormalisation

We clarify some aspects of the LSZ formalism and wave function renormalisation for unstable particles in the presence of electroweak interactions when mixing and CP violation are considered. We also analyse the renormalisation of the CKM mixing matrix which is closely related to wave function renormalisation. We critically review earlier attempts to define a set of "on-shell" wave function renormalisation constants. With the aid of an extensive use of the Nielsen identities complemented by explicit calculations we corroborate that the counter term for the CKM mixing matrix must be explicitly gauge independent and demonstrate that the commonly used prescription for the wave function renormalisation constants leads to gauge parameter dependent amplitudes, even if the CKM counter term is gauge invariant as required. We show that a proper LSZ-compliant prescription leads to gauge independent amplitudes. The resulting wave function renormalisation constants necessarily possess absorptive parts, but we verify that they comply with the expected requirements concerning CP and CPT. The results obtained using this prescription are different (even at the level of the modulus squared of the amplitude) from the ones neglecting the absorptive parts in the case of top decay. The difference is numerically relevant.Comment: 19 pages, plain latex, one ps figur

Off-Diagonal Hyperfine Interaction and Parity Non-conservation in Cesium

We have performed relativistic many-body calculations of the hyperfine interaction in the $6s$ and $7s$ states of Cs, including the off-diagonal matrix element. The calculations were used to determine the accuracy of the semi-empirical formula for the electromagnetic transition amplitude $$ induced by the hyperfine interaction. We have found that even though the contribution of the many-body effects into the matrix elements is very large, the square root formula $= \sqrt{ }$ remains valid to the accuracy of a fraction of $10^{-3}$. The result for the M1-amplitude is used in the interpretation of the parity-violation measurement in the $6s-7s$ transition in Cs which claims a possible deviation from the Standard model.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, LaTeX, Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Tau Polarimetry with Inclusive Decays

The spin asymmetry parameter $A_\tau$ characterizing the angular distribution of the total hadron momentum in the decay of a polarized tau can be calculated rigorously using perturbative QCD and the operator product expansion. Perturbative QCD corrections to the free quark result $A_\tau = 1/3$ can be expressed as a power series in $\alpha_s(M_\tau)$ and nonperturbative QCD corrections can be expanded systematically in powers of $1/M_\tau^2$. The QCD prediction is $A_\tau = 0.41 \pm 0.02$. In the decay of a high energy tau into hadrons, the value of the hadronic energy distribution $dR_\tau/dz$ evaluated at the maximum hadronic energy fraction $z = 1$ can also be calculated rigorously from QCD.Comment: LateX, 11 pages, no figures, NUHEP-TH-93-

Two-Boson Exchange Physics: A Brief Review

Current status of the two-boson exchange contributions to elastic electron-proton scattering, both for parity conserving and parity-violating, is briefly reviewed. How the discrepancy in the extraction of elastic nucleon form factors between unpolarized Rosenbluth and polarization transfer experiments can be understood, in large part, by the two-photon exchange corrections is discussed. We also illustrate how the measurement of the ratio between positron-proton and electron-proton scattering can be used to differentiate different models of two-photon exchange. For the parity-violating electron-proton scattering, the interest is on how the two-boson exchange (TBE), \gamma Z-exchange in particular, could affect the extraction of the long-sought strangeness form factors. Various calculations all indicate that the magnitudes of effect of TBE on the extraction of strangeness form factors is small, though can be large percentage-wise in certain kinematics.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, prepared for Proceedings of the fifth Asia-Pacific Conference on Few-Body Problems in Physics (APFB2011), Seoul, Korea, August 22-26, 2011, to appear in Few-Body Systems, November 201

Limits on the Neutrino Mass and Mixing Angle from Pion and Lepton Decays

Motivated by a recent rather surprising conclusion based on the 1992 PDG data on the pion, kaon and lepton decays that if three generations of neutrinos are assumed to be massive and mixed, the heaviest neutrino, $\nu_3$, could have a mass in the range, 155~\mbox{MeV} \lsim m_3 \lsim 225~\mbox{MeV}, we have analyzed the latest 1995 data on the leptonic decays of pion, $\mu$ and $\tau$ with the assumption that three generations of neutrinos are massive and mixed. It is shown that when the radiative corrections are included and the constraint {}from partial decay widths is imposed, the 1995 data are consistent with three massless neutrinos with no mixing. Various limits on the neutrino mass and mixing angle implied by the 1995 data are presented together with a critique of the previous analysis.Comment: REVTeX file, 20 pages and 10 figures (not included). Revision of the analysis and inclusion of the latest data. The TeX file and the figures (uuencoded, compressed, tarred file) are available at http://fermi.pha.jhu.edu/personnel/fornengo/fornengo.htm